Anthrax Vaccine Found on British Beach

Published 1:02 pm, Monday, April 25, 2016

Several boxes of anthrax vaccines from the Ministry of Defense were found washed up on a southern British beach Monday, officials said.

Investigators were checking if the boxes were from a ship that was headed to the Persian Gulf as part of a U.S. and British military buildup for possible war against Iraq, a Ministry of Defense spokeswoman said.

The packages found at West Bay in Dorset, southern England, also included some phials of dimercaprol, which acts as an antidote to heavy metal poisoning. They had been supplied to the Center for Applied Microbiological Research in Salisbury, 85 miles southwest of London.

The beach was closed and searched after coast guards found the vaccines at 11 a.m. The Ministry of Defense said scores of phials were in the packages.

"We can confirm it was issued to the armed forces," a Ministry of Defense spokeswoman said on condition of anonymity. "Neither of the two drugs pose a risk to public health. The anthrax vaccine is used to protect personnel and doesn't contain any live anthrax."

She said officials would investigate if the phials came from a warship involved in the recent Royal Navy Task Force deployment to the Persian Gulf.

Anthrax, a biological agent, is one of the main concerns of U.N. arms inspectors teams searching Iraq for weapons of mass destruction.